04/26/1998
IWDM Study Library 
How to Succeed in the Next Millennium: Education Leadership and Diversity Rockford, IL

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
The following lecture titled: How to Succeed In The Next Millennium, Education, Leadership, and Diversity was recorded Sunday, April the 26th, 1998 at the Rockford Woman's Club in Rockford, Illinois. The lecturer is Imam W. Deen Mohammed, Muslim-American Spokesman and now Imam Mohammed.
Thank you. Peace be unto you. As Salaam Alaikum. We praise G-d. Al-hamduilahi Rabbil Al Amin . That is Praise and Thanks is to G-d, the Lord, Creator, Cherisher, and Sustainer of the Universe of all matter in the Heavens and in the Earth as well as the human creation, ourselves.
We witness that He is the G-d of all. He cares for all. As Allah says, G-d that is, says in our Holy Book, the Qur'an, the last Revelation revealed about 14 centuries and some few years ago to Muhammad ibn Abdullah of Mecca. Born citizen of Mecca, born in Mecca. That that G-d is the same G-d that people have who are in Christian faith and in the Jewish faith. Allah says to us, G-d that is, says to us Muslims. And the Qur'an says, "Say to them," meaning to Jews and to Christians, "Say to them our G-d and your G-d is one and the same", one and the same. Ilaha Wahid . One and the same G-d.
So, if we just make clear to the people what G-d has given to us in our Holy Book, then we will be doing the good job, the excellent job of presenting Muslims and our religion, Islam. Islam and the Muslims have to be presented in the way that Allah has revealed the religion to us in our Holy Book, the Qur'an. And through the life model, for us, Muhammad the Prophet, Prayers and the Peace be upon him.
We witness the Oneness of G-d, and we witness also the Prophethood, the Messengership of Muhammad the Prophet who is called in the Holy Book Qur'an, the Messenger Prophet, the Messenger Prophet. And we refer to him most often Muhammad of the Qur'an who receives the revelation, the Qur'an. We refer to him most often as the Messenger of G-d, Rasullah, Rasullah, because he's referred to as a Messenger of G-d in the Qur'an, as a Messenger of G-d much more often than as a Prophet, the Prophet. So, we refer to him as G-d's Messenger, Rasuallahi.
We are happy to be back in Rockford, Illinois as we see you, our close neighbor. And I wasn't thinking that Milwaukee was so close, we're very pleased to see the Imam join us from Milwaukee. And others who have joined us from neighboring towns, close by towns, we're very pleased to see you here.
The Religion of Islam... Let me quickly give the audience a description of the Religion Islam and then we will, from there, address the topic or the subject for this presentation.
Islam simply means peace. Comes from a word which means peace. Salama, means to make peace .Salama means to make peace, the verb to make peace. And Muslim also comes from the word meaning peace, to make peace. Salama, means to make peace, Muslim. And the greetings we give are As Salaam , means the peace. As Salaam means the peace, the peace. And we say the Peace be with you, or the Peace be upon you, or the Peace be unto you. It's all translated in different ways.
I tend to translate it more literally. I say the Peace be upon you. Alaikum, means upon you. And it's not upon you as an individual. We never say Peace be upon a person as an individual. We don't say "Asalaam Alaika. That would be speaking to you and greeting you as though I'm giving the offering this peace to you as an individual. We always say "Asalaam Alaikum". It means to you as the plural person, to you as a plural person, Asalaam Alaikum. This is to be understood in the knowledge of Arabic language how meanings and compliments are conveyed and by expressions in Arabic to tell someone, to speak to someone as though that person, the many people give... It indicates that you've given them much more respect than if you spoke to them with a term that communicated it through a term, that meant them one, alone, one person.
And I believe for Judaism it's the same. Although I've heard them say one person, but I think most of the Jews when even when they speak to one person, they say, "Shalom, peace. Shalom Aleichem. Shalom Aleichem. Shalom Aleichem. That's how they say it, "Shalom aleichem." And that's because these two languages belong to the same family of languages, same family of languages, the Semitic language. So Arabic and Hebrew and some other languages belong to the family of Semitic languages. And we all thought that Semitic was only Jew. It's not. Semitic is not only Jew. Semitic is a group of people. Ethiopians too belong to the Semitic family of languages. Let me see. I need some help on my eyes. I thought I wouldn't, but I do. I got my glasses here, right here somewhere.
Now I don't know why... I do know why I wear these flimsy glasses. I tend to not be aware that I got glasses, and I might put them in my back pocket, side pocket, anywhere and crush them. So I got some... Now, I can crush and bend them right back into shape. They're flimsy, but I can bend them back into shape. Yes. Islam means Peace, but it is a verb form. Pardon me. It is a noun form of a verb, Islam. Islam is a noun form of a verb. So this translated that it means willing surrender, willing surrender, surrendering willingly. And it's also translated submission, submission, submission, submission, submission. But you have to understand that the root meaning is peace. So whatever we are describing is peace. So if it's submission, it means submission. My submission to G-d that the peace of my soul welcomes. It's what pleases my soul.
The peace in my soul is expressed. And when it is expressed, my life submits to my G-d. That's what Islam is. It's a willingness... More than a willingness. It's the urge in our soul that satisfied when we submit our life into the charge of G-d and to G-d's charge. That's exactly what it means. Then the soul has that peace that G-d created it to have upon a relationship with his G-d, his Maker, his Creator, his Designer. Yes. Now, when Prophet Muhammad, further discussing the term peace or Islam as meaning peace in its root, when Prophet Muhammad gained victory, G-d gave him the victory over his idolatrous countrymen who were decided upon keeping the new religion out of that peninsula.
When he was given the victory, he didn't tell them that they had to be Muslims, all of them, but he told them that they had to accept the peace, accept the peace. They had to As lama. They had to say As Lamtu, means I accept the peace. If I speak, I want to tell you I accept the peace. I say As lamtu, I accept the peace, As Lamtu. So they had to say As Lamtu, meaning I accept the peace.
That's the way of any society that's intelligent requires of all of its citizens, societies, nations, countries, require all of their citizens that they accept to live under the law in peace, not to try to disrupt the order, not to try to undermine the rule but accept to live in this state and keep the peace or respect the peace of the state. So that's all Prophet Muhammad asked of them. They didn't have to become Muslims. There were relatives of the Prophet never became Muslims, never became Muslims. And they were always... His relatives, he always treated them with the same kind respect he gave them before he was missioned to be the Prophet. And history tells us it's documented that there was a community of Jews living in Medina before Islam came. When Islam came, the Prophet after getting the victory and becoming responsible, the Muslims becoming responsible for the order of the land, for the order of the land. Thank you.
I better take it early so you all will see what it does. Now, I'm sorry. I'm always making jokes, a dozen of jokes. Don't let him lead now. Keep him here. Yes. So, when he came into the authority there as their leader, they put him in that position, the citizens did with their support for him. He mandated that the Jewish community would be free to continue to practice their religion as they had done before the rule of Islam came in. So there shouldn't be any question about whether Muslims could accept non-Muslims living under their rule, under their law or jurisdiction. It already had been... That has been established in the time of the prophet himself 14 centuries ago. And likewise, similarly for Christians. It is documented. This is in the collection of reports on our Prophet by Bukhari and Muslim that the Prophet said to his soldiers, he said, "When you go to a town..." He gave them many instructions regarding that behavior, how they should conduct themself.
He said, "See that you destroy no sacred relics or no sacred items of the people." He say, "Don't defile their places and don't even break a cross." He said, "Don't even break the... Don't break the sacred emblem like the cross." He said, "Don't break the cross." For some of us that has more meaning than just what we see in the physical picture breaking a cross. And he said, "And don't break the cross." Now this is reported. This is kept in the reports of Bukhari and Muslim. The more popular of the reports on the life of our Prophet Muhammad as he lived it. That mean his speech and his actions.
So, Islam means the religion of peace. It obligates us to respect the peace and to seek, to live at peace, in peace and at peace with ourselves and with others, ourselves and with others. And I think Brother Ronald Shaheed of La Crosse, Wisconsin if he didn't moved since I spoke to him last. I heard he is thinking about moving to Milwaukee to be the Resident Imam there. If he hasn't moved, then La Crosse, Wisconsin, right? Yeah. I thank him for already bringing to you the respect that we have for neighbors because of the way our Prophet dealt with neighbors and the importance that he put on a relationship with your neighbor.
Islam in its term, I have did some discussion. I've given you some comments on it. Now, let's look at Islam in practice as a religion. The Prophet was asked, "What is religion?" And I'm not giving you all this to save time. I won't give you every detail in this report that comes... Again, it comes also from this most respected collection of reports on the life on our Prophet by Bukhari and Muslim. The questioner says, "What is the religion?" And the Prophet answered. He asked him more than one question at the same time, at the same in the same scene. At the same scene, he asked him more than one... But he asked him, "What is the religion?" That's the main one, main question was, "What is the religion?" He didn't say what is Islam. He says "What is the religion?" really.
We translate what is Islam. He said, "What is the religion, or what is religion?" And he was asking this, directing this to Muhammad, the Prophet whose religion is Islam, and he is the Prophet of Islam. And Muhammad replied, "He said to witness that there is One G-d." He didn't say, "To witness that there is One G-d and Muhammad is His Messenger." He said, "To witness that there is One G-d, that God is One. To witness that G-d is One, to pray." He didn't say to pray five times a day. He said to pray. And, we know it all this... This is clear that we have to do this, but he's speaking to someone who's asking him what is religion? He said, "To pray." He said, "To give in charity." He said, "To fast the month of Ramadan and to visit the house." He just said the house, Al-Bait.
Now obviously, the audience that he was having at that time, they knew the bait, Al-Bait. They knew what he was talking about. For this audience, maybe he would have to explain it to some of you. Say, what is the bait? What is the house? They're talking about the house built by Abraham, Prophet Abraham, and his son Ishmael. Two Prophets of the Bible, Abraham and Ishmael, Father Abraham and his son Ishmael. The house built by them for pilgrimage, for pilgrimage to travel there to that house and go through the steps of the heights, the pilgrimage, and to pray there at the site of Abraham at Maqama, at his standing place. Not his kneeling place. At his standing place, the standing place of Abraham. They go there, and they pray there. So he said, and to visit the house. That's simply what he said. That was all.
He was asked, "What is religion?" And he simply gave those five statements, five statements or five items to witness that there's One G-d to pray, to fast up to... Pardon me. To witness that there's One G-d, to pray, to give in charity, to fast the month of Ramadan and to visit the sacred house. That's what he said. And he finished. That was it. He concluded. But the questioner didn't end there. The questioner asked him two other questions. And one of the questions were... He asked him, "What is the hour, the hour, the hour, time, a piece of time, the hour? And Muhammad's reply was... If some of us would be asked, we try to give the answer. Muhammad's reply was, "The one whose questioning knows no more than the questioner."
That was his answer. And the Bible, I think, says, "No man knows the hour." Yes, no one. G-d has not permitted anyone to know that time, when that time will come. But there are signs of it. So much for that. Now, when you look at Muslims in their religion, that's what you see. You see Muslims insisting that G-d is One. There's no polytheists. No room for many gods or more than one, only One G-d. And you see Muslims insisting upon prayer, not private prayer but prayer and congregation, prayer and congregation. Praying with each other at some site daily, five times a day. Now this is a Muslim picture. If you would say, "Show me Muslim how they live. How are they different from other people?" I think not witnessing One G-d because the other great faiths witness too, the One G-d. But when it comes to prayer, we are distinguished by the way we pray.
We pray a certain way. We take a certain form. We pray in congregation together. The leader stands in front of us, and we follow him at his signals to do certain things, to put the hands to the ear, to bring them down, to bend the knees, to bend to the knees, to prostrate on the floor with our forehead and nose and palms and the toes are on the ground. And the knees. Pardon me. And toes on the ground. So this distinguishes us from other people. So this gives us our, I would say, picture as a religious group. And charity, well, we have Eid days. Our charity is celebrated on the Eid day, the charity, the Sadaqah, called Sadaqah al-Fitrah and Sadaqah al-Adha.
The two big Eid, the celebration days of ours, we celebrate it and meet... It's a day of charity, especially the day Eid al-Adha just passed, celebrating Prophet Abraham's, Peace be upon him, his charity to the poor when he fed the poor with his lambs, his lamb, his lambs. On the 10th day, we celebrate it. The 10th day of Hajj. We celebrate that, and that's our charity, but we give charity daily. Daily, we're giving charity too. So they might can see... Maybe they see our charity. In Eid al-Adha, it's published that we are... It's the sacrifice of Abraham, and we are following his tradition of charity and goodness to all people, especially to those who can't afford to have it for themselves, can't afford to have that good food and celebration. So, we make it available to them by bearing the cost to feed them and to invite them to the feast.
But I think what really distinguishes us is our prayer and our pilgrimage to the house. That gives us our visibility. And whenever you see posters identifying Muslims, most likely you're going to see the sacred sites at Mecca where we make pilgrimage to, that we visit. You'll see the sacred mass there and the site of Abraham, the Prophet Abraham along with the house, the little house, the cubicle house called Ka'aba, the cubicle house, Ka'aba. When you look at the word cube, how it spells cube, C-U-B-E is cube, isn't it, C-U-B-E? Yeah. And some of these words, I haven't looked at them or tried to spell them or read them in many years, so I have to try to remember, especially when my mind is crowded. C-U-B-E is cube. Yes. Now I recall. Yes, that's how you spell cube, C-U-B-E, cube.
And you look at the word Ka'aba in Arabic, I do believe the word cube in English has its origin in Ka'aba. Ka'aba, yes, because you have the K and you have the B in Ka'aba. And you have one vowel between the K and the B, Ka'aba. It's very difficult to pronounce kaa, Ka'aba. A sound, Ka'aba. And then in English we have cube, cube. So I think cube, they say it came from this and that. The dictionary say it came from here and there and here and there, but I believe originally wherever they got it from originally, I do believe that place was the language of the Arabs, Arabic, Ka'aba. Yes. So, that's the religion. That's the religion. Now, we are people of faith. We are people of faith, not just practices. So we have the statements of faith that are also established for us very clearly in Islamic knowledge and tradition.
Faith is to believe in G-d, to believe in the Angels, to believe in Revelations, the Angels, the Messengers of the Revelation, to believe in the Revelation. And the Revelation is to be put into scrolls or papers or books, and we believe in the Books. And book in Arabic does not necessarily mean a book like we think. We think of a book as having a front and a back and pages in between. That's industry who brought us that, printing industry brought us that picture of the book. In Arabic, the word book comes from writing. Writing is Kathaba, means to write, Kathaba, to write. And Qutub, books, means writing. That's all it means. Book in Arabic literally means compiled writings, writings compiled, Qutub, book. And we believe in the Books, and we believe in the Prophets and Messenger of G-d, G-d's Prophets and Messenger. And we believe in the Qadar of G-d. The Qadar of G-d, translated predestination. And that's the English translation, or in the West trying to satisfy the meanings or give, convey meanings that would be understood by Western people.
But that meaning has now been rejected by almost a hundred percent of the Islamic leaders or scholars of the scriptures. They say it's not predestination. Muslims are not believers in predestination, though we know God is foreknower of everything and G-d has decided the creation, how it's going... But that's not a belief with us, predestination. Then they strive to change, to translate it as premeasurement. And that has not caught on either, premeasurement. So most of the scholars would simply give it as a statement as we give it as Muslims in Islam. Al Qadaru Kaidehi Wa Shardehi Min Al At ala. They choose to give you the statement that said by Muslims from the time of the Prophet he gave us that statement. Translated, the statement says whatever Al Qadaru is, it says that is Al Qadaru. It regulates. It regulates or governs the good that you will get from something, and the harm you will get from something. And that rule is from G-d Most High. Min Alahi At ala. It's from G-d Most High. So that's the explanation of it. So we believe that G-d has ordered the creation, everything, so that when we approach it, if we approach it the way G-d intended for it to be approached, we get good benefits from it. And this is in accord again with Christianity or with the Bible that says, "When G-d made everything and concluded it before Satan and the deviant, deviators interfered with it, it was all good." That's what the Bible said. He did this, he did that, first day, second day, third day, fourth day, fifth day, sixth day, seventh day concluded. And G-d saw that it all was good. Yes. So the beliefs are not at variance, or against each other. The beliefs are compatible. They're the same. They agree with each other. Our belief in the Qadar of G-d, we find this explanation in the Bible.
And I haven't found any serious matter in Qur'an that I can't find a resemblance of it in the Bible. And this tells me that Islam is an expression of Revelation that came before. The Revelation that came before Islam is an expression of that Revelation and a conclusion, and a conclusion. Revelation is what you call it progressional, progressional. Progress to this point, G-d chooses someone else to come at the end. When that phase is completed, G-d choose another one to come at the end of that phase, just pick it up from there, and it progresses again. And that's how history have been, the history of Revalation has been. Prophets or Messengers have come one behind another. Inspired men. Sometime not what we call Prophets, but inspired individuals have come and they've moved it. G-d have inspired them and helped them to see how to move it, another span or another progression, and it continues just like that. Now for many in the religion, it's always continuing like that. It'll always be progressional.
But for Muslims, it's not. It's concluded. As far as Scripture, our Revelation is concerned, for Muslims, it's concluded. No more Scripture, no more Revelation, as Scripture will come from G-d to the people. It's concluded. With the Qur'an, that was concluded. But don't think that that means that we won't have progress. New fresh vision, new understanding, progress for our lives, for our rational perception of what G-d has given us.
Yes, we will have progress. That will continue. That continues to the day of judgment. In fact, we lose the right understanding of it at times. What causes that? The Prophet said the main thing that would cause us to lose the right understanding of Islam is materialism. Materialism. Giving ourselves to materialism, to the material comforts of life, to material interests. And that would take us away from the spiritual life and cause us to lose the correct understanding of Islam.
And he predicted that his community would be lost or would go down like the sun goes down and darkness would prevail over it. And he said that it would return by the same causes that caused it to be established or it would return upon the poor as it was established before upon the poor. That when the light of Islam goes out in the world, it will come back on, according to the Prophet's prediction, because of the poor awakening and being concerned, they would bring the light back.
Now, we know the Prophet had rich people in his immediate staff. Uthman, his very name suggests wealth, may G-d be pleased with him, was one of the few great stars in the Prophet's group of immediate leaders to him who became rulers after the Prophet, like Abu Bakr, Umar, and Ali, and Uthman. He had wealth. Abu Bakr was not a poor man either. But they were the very few. The great numbers that supported the Prophet Muhammad were poor people. They were poor people. Only a very few people with wealth. Great numbers of people that supported him, they were poor.
And among them, Bilal, the first Mu'ezzin or the first one responsible to call the people to prayer at the time of prayer, like the ringing of the bell for the church, the signal out to the neighboring areas to, "Come now. It's time for prayer," was given firstly by the appointed mu'ezzin, Bilal, an African of Ethiopia, called Habashe in that time. The Habashe. He belonged to that group of people that were called Habashe of Ethiopia. And he was a poor man. In fact, he was a slave. He was a slave to an Arab master. I guess it was an Arab master. I'm not certain of that. One thing for sure, he spoke Arabic. His master did speak Arabic. Yes, and Bilal was his slave.
And Bilal heard the Prophet's call to worship One G-d. And he accepted it even while he was a slave. And his master learned that he had changed his thinking, and his master tried to torture him and get him to give up that new idea he had. But Bilal took the torture. And when it was too much for him to respond to with his mouth, he simply held out one finger. And that's why we do the same now in prayer. We hold up one finger when it comes to that point where we say, "And we witness that G-d is One," we put one finger out like that when we're sitting down on the floor. And Bilal did that under torture.
So, he couldn't speak to his master, but when his master would come and say, "Are you ready to give up that idea?" Bilal would simply do this with his finger. And Abu Bakr, the friend of Abu Bakr Siddiq, may G-d be Pleased with him, the friend of our Prophet, close friend, companion of our Prophet, who became the first ruler after our Prophet passed, Peace be upon him.
He paid the price to free Bilal, the Habashe person from Africa. Out of his own private money, he paid it and he bought the man's freedom. Bought Bilal's freedom. Yes. Our beliefs are very similar to the beliefs of Christians and Jews. So similar, I don't see any reason to say that there's different beliefs as that much different. And we are to believe in the Day of Judgment, or life after the death.
Simply put, we are to believe in life, the life after the death says "Al Bathi" means the coming back up into "Al Bathi" can be said, the resurrection. The resurrection, closest word. "Al Bathi", the resurrection, Ba'da, after. Al Maut, the death. So we believe in the resurrection after the death. And this is Christianity. It's the same in Christianity. No different. Same in Christianity.
So, these are the beliefs of Muslims you see. So in our real identity who are we? We are people who believe in One G-d, who pray to that G-d who fast the month of Ramadan, pardon me, who believe in the One G-d who prayed to that G-d who give in charity fast the month of Ramadan and visit the house, The Sacred house in Mecca. That's who we are. And we are Believers like the Believers. This is our identity. We are believers. Believers in G-d, Believers in angels, Believers, Believers in the Revelation, the Book, the Revelation and Believers in the Books, the Revealed books and the Prophets, our Messengers of G-d and believe believers in the Qadar of G-d.
And we Believers in the day of judgment are the resurrection after the death. These are our beliefs. It's interesting about Prophecy. We think of Islam not as a religion of Prophecy or we think of the Qur'an more correctly put. We think of the Qur'an not as a Book of Prophecy, but the Qur'an is a Book of Prophecy as well as the Book of teachings and reporting the Book, the Qur'an is a Book of reporting. Says, "And what report will they accept after this?" So, the Qur'an is a Book of reporting.
Things are reported there for us. Like history. Like history. It's a Book for preserving for us a history that G-d wants to keep with us. But it's also a Book of Prophecy too. And Muhammad, the Prophet, he's not thought of as the Prophet giving Prophecies, but he did. He most certainly did. When he said that his community would go to sleep or would come on the darkness and it would rise back up as it rose up before that meaning his time upon the poor, upon the poor or with the support of the poor.
That was a Prophecy. And I would say when the Prophet was relaying to us, that is his following, that would be here on this earth then and now a sign of the judgment through the same incident or person upon me that appeared there, the angel Jibril, who appeared in that crowd as a person, as a man. And it was reported that he was asked about this judgment day and he gave not an answer. He couldn't say when the judgment day was going to be anything. G-d hadn't given him that or any man that, to know that. Hadn't given that to any man to know.
So, the Prophet said, "There are signs of it," he said, "And one of the signs of it would be when the handmaiden," not the wife, the handmaiden. Now if you can look it up in a dictionary, what handmaiden is. Well, I'm going to give you the meaning right here. And I used to work in homes for rich people. Go and clean their carpets, paint for them, wash their walls or whatever. And the rich would always have servants in the house. And sometimes the rich lady would have a lady that she trusted with her interests.
And like a rich man would trust a butler or a housekeeper, pardon me. The one who receives the guest, a butler with his very dignified guests, receiving them before the rich man would even see them to greet them. The butler greets them, makes them feel comfortable, have them seated, make them feel comfortable, give them some coffee or tea or something. Butler would handle all that.
And even when the Master was entertaining his guest, the butler would be there to serve his Master in any way. To keep the guests so that the guests would be comfortable, very comfortable. So the handmaiden is the woman of the poor woman of the rich woman. That's a trustworthy poor person that the rich person trusts with their interests. So this is the handmaiden. So, the Prophet says that a sign of the end of the world, or the judgment will be when the handmaiden gives birth to the child of her mistress.
Give birth, pardon me for her mistress, her child. She will give birth to a child from her own body, but she'll be doing it for her mistress. For the big lady. For the big lady. A sign of the judgment. Now that's a sign of the judgment. A sign of the judgment really was the birth of Ishmael. According to Arab tradition, huh? It was the birth of Ismael because Ismael was the child of the hand maiden. The big lady was Sarah, Peace be upon her. The big lady was Sarah, and her handmaiden was Hagar.
And she offered to her husband Abraham, Peace be upon him. Her handmaiden Hagar, since she couldn't bear him a child, she was barren, she was not able to have children anymore. And Abraham took Hagar as his wife. This is Islam, Islamic tradition. The Jews may differ, they may say, "No. She was never his wife. She was always his concubine," or something like that, but we don't buy that language. She was wife and he took her into the desert because she began to show signs of the growth of her baby.
The stomach had began to protrude and Sarah began to feel jealous. She asked for it and then later decided she didn't want it. Just like some of you sisters do. You asked for a polygamous relationship with some of these brothers, but when you see the whole thing, you want to cut out.
Yeah. So anyway, I don't think she's quite having your problem, but I just thought I'd mention your problem in connection with her problem. Anyway, she asked Abraham to take her out. Said, "Take this handmaid out of my house." So he took her out into the desert and he found a place for her. And what came from that, the Arab people, that's the beginning of the Arab people according to tradition in Islam, their ancestry goes back to the son of Hagar, the handmaiden, the son of Hagar, the handmaiden, and Ismael is their father.
The beginning of the Arab line, Ismael, the Prophet, Ismael, Peace be upon him. So they are the children of Abraham through Ismael. And the Jews say they are the Children of Abraham through the brother of Ismael. Isaac, who was the son of Sarah, the big lady, right? That's it. Okay, that's it. Now if Arabs traced their ancestry to Ismael, that's when they began. So that beginning is in Abraham, but through Abraham's son, right? And the Jews traced that beginning to Isaac, Isaac again through Abraham, same father. Then what was Abraham? Was he an Arab? Was he a Jew? No, he's father of the Jew. He's father of the Arab. Right? Amen.
And Abraham was called by G-d, Father of the nations. This is a Bible. Father of the nations, G-d said of him, after He was pleased with Abraham sacrifice, He said to Abraham, "No more will you be called Abram, but you'll be called Abraham," meaning Father of many. And that's understood to be Father of the nations. He's the second father after Adam. Adam is common Father of all human beings. And Father Abraham was was appointed to that position by G-d, that he's the father of the many. The nations. The nations.
But only to the extent that the nations follow the way of Abraham in spirit. This is the Bible. For those that do not follow in spirit, according to the Bible, if I understand it correctly, they are not the children of Abraham and they're not the children of G-d either. If you understand it, those who follow in the spirit. So, you can be flesh like this physical flesh and your spirit is given to the devil, then you're not the children of G-d and you're not the children of Abraham.
Yes. Let's see. Yes, yes. So he said another sign, the judgment, the end of the world. I'm slightly changing this from yesterday. I feel that you'll like what I'm doing. I'm just staying right with it. Staying in this vein a long time.
He said another sign of a judgment would be when people from the community of the poor will be competing in the construction of tall buildings, skyscrapers, tall buildings. They would be competing. Now haven't we come to a time that wasn't back then, but modern America, modern West and especially America, particularly America, this industry, this progress with industry and science and technology. People and more importantly, it's kind of society freedom, the kind of freedom we have here.
We have people who have been thought of as poor and never thought of as persons who would come into industry and be developers, are leaders in the field of industry. But we have seen that. The poor, people from the poor in times gone by, whatever class you were in, you stayed there because the classes were so rigid to the line. The line that separated the classes were so rigid that you couldn't come over there. You couldn't come over from the poor class to the wealthy class or into the well to do class. It was kept that way.
So, if you were born poor, most likely you would be poor forever. You expected your children to be poor and children children to be poor. That's how it was. Unless there was some rare incident or accident that that would bring you into and bring you into some money and then you would leave them.
You wouldn't change their state, you would just leave them and join the rich. That's all. The'yd still stay poor. And that's the way it was. That's history. That's the way it was. But the class distinction, the lines that separate the different classes now are not as rigid anymore. You can come over and many times the one who comes over, he feels, or she feels obligated to go back and bring many others over.
Like the Underground Railroad, the woman Harriet Tubman. She got her freedom. She was free in the north, but she wasn't satisfied. She felt that she had to go back down South where the slaves were and sneak them up too. So called Underground Railroad. So this is the new world. This happens in the new world. Great revolutions by the masses have also brought great numbers from the poor to come into the wealthy class or to be described as the people of wealth, means and wealth.
Power, means, influence and wealth. And one case is in the of history of Islam, of the Mamuluks, the Mamuluks Turks, the Mamuluks. Their called that because before they came into power, they were slaves. Mamuluks were slaves. They got their freedom and they were so strong as a people, united force that they finally established territory for themselves. And the Mamuluks kingdom is a very popular kingdom in the history of the Turks. Mamuluks. How many of you familiar with that term? Mamuluks? Yes. But Mamuluks means people who were slaves before.
All of a sudden, they were people responsible for society, responsible for government and the order of society. Mamuluks, Mamuluks, Turks. But as I said that, that that's not expected. That's a exception to the rule that something happens, a phenomenal thing happens and you find people from the poor class coming into that.
A sign of the judgment is when you'll see the class distinctions become less noticeable. That's a sign of the judgment. So I'm saying that to say to you that I don't know how often the judgment will be repeated. All of us think it's one day of judgment. And I guess it is for the souls. I guess there will be one day of judgment. But I believe for life on this earth that judgment comes and goes. That society's progress for so long and certain mold, societal mold and then it's the word of G-d that brings about great change for them.
The word of G-d brings about great change for them enable and enables them to come back into good shape and good life and good shape that G-d wants us in. And this is progressional too. Progressional. I believe there are resurrections before our time. But those resurrections, if we could see them, they don't show as much progress for human beings, fulfilling what G-d wants of us as the resurrection that I'm beginning to see that's occurring right now in our lifetime.
And Islam has not left us with no support for what I'm saying to you. The Prophet gave a picture to his followers And G-d gives it to us in the Qur'an of a resurrection that's not a resurrection of the individual soul, but a resurrection of community life. And G-d says to look at buildings collapse. The area, community neglected and the buildings are collapsing. The houses are in bad repair, the buildings are in bad repair and their roofs are caving in.
And the renewal comes to that town, renewal comes in and it's repaired and brought back into good condition. And G-d says to us in the Qur'an "And likewise the resurrection." Now, if G-d didn't want us to think of a need to have community life resurrected when it goes down or when it dies, He wouldn't have given us that description. He gave us that description because He want us to see life, death, and resurrection, not only in our souls but for our community life.
And I believe in grave resurrection that will come. A resurrection for all souls on this earth is here, is here. We are one community of people now. The global family is here and it's time for the great resurrection. Yes. So quickly addressing the topic, the concern that I have, that we have here for today, and that is the future, the year 2000.
Speaker 3:
Hello. As we think through what is going to perhaps happen in the Gulf area, what should we be thinking about next week?
IWDM:
Next week?
Speaker 3:
What should we be thinking about next week for those of us who are not interested in bombing, who are absolutely opposed to the bombing? Do you have anything, any words that we should be thinking over next week?
IWDM:
Well, I think we should be informed correctly and I think we will be interested. Saddam himself, I'm told that he has 80 palaces, or palacious homes and these are disguised. These are disguised to make it very difficult for a strike to be made on him individually because they don't know where he's sleeping? Qadaffi was hit in his home. So Saddam is making sure that it'd be very difficult to hit him in his home. And we understand that he has underground protection for himself that make it very difficult.
Now they have new weapons that they say can go underground, but whose going to be, whose lives is going to be lost? The many lives that are going to be lost will be the lives of the innocent. And children are suffering there now in the country. Old women, old men are suffering there because of the embargo. So who are we hurting? Are we hurting Saddam? Every time America flexes it muscles against Saddam, Saddam enjoys popularity and his popularity grows more and more as America flexes it's muscle.
Speaker 3:
Thank you.
Speaker 4:
As-Salaam-Alaikum. Imam, question that I have is simply this. Looking at the evolution of your community from the past say from 1975 all the way to this particular day. And by also understanding from the position that you have taken, some of the community have obviously taken the position, other philosopher and other Imams. They have taken the position, that position that your father has taken in the past and are still teaching that particular type of teaching to many people within United States and across the world.
Speaker 4:
And we have seen them also have not, some people have taken the position that you have taken for more total community, also see Islam what it's excellence, the excellence that it teaches. Do you still feel or do you feel that speaking from an African-American perspective at this time, that the people, the Imams or the community that still teaches the teachings or way your father taught in the past, there's more of a hinderance to the development or evolution or the growth of our community now? Or just what?
IWDM:
I believe I understand the question. I would like to believe that the great majority of our Imams understand that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad's teaching, that his leadership, was really a temporary leadership. And that if we study his own changes that he made, there were changes in where he put the importance in his message, from just studying mystical, esoteric teachings, secret teachings, or very difficult to understand teachings for the thirties and the forties until almost the fifties, that's where the emphasis was. He was telling his ministers and all of us to study those teachings, to learn them by heart, to memorize them. We memorized those things.
But in the early fifties, well really, in the late forties, he started to change. He put emphasis on changing your environment, do something to improve your physical environment. So he said to do that we're going to have to have businesses and have got to make money. Have to have money. So he tried to develop business sense in his community and develop appreciation for business and he took the lead himself. He showed them how to start a business. He started a restaurant and a grocery store and he was very successful with it in Chicago. He actually cut the meats himself. He was the butcher himself. And he was demonstrating to us that we should be interested in business. The emphasis came on business.
And lastly, in the last part of his life, his emphasis was on peace. He said, if the white man can be fair by you and treat you with respect, then you be the same by him. This is what The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said in his last speeches he made to us. And we knew that he was telling us, "Get out of that mind you were in before. And go toward a better way." And at the same time, he was putting strong emphasis on business too. Business remains a very strong concern in The Honorable Elijah Muhammad's message. But he was also saying that we have to see that this world has changed. Circumstances for Blacks in America has improved, that the white world is changing to be better towards you, then you also accept that.
And that's what Allah says in the Qur'an. Say for people that you have enmity with, you're fighting with, if they show that they want peace, you incline also towards peace. To peace, you see, he taught peace. So Elijah Muhammad, he was influenced by that. And he saw that the white race was changing and he wanted us to be aware of that and to register that they are changing. So, you should start changing too.
Those ministers should be aware of that. Some of those ministers are not. They say they followed The Honorable Elijah Muhammad. One is very popular because he's a bright intellect, he's a bright person and charismatic. Well, he's very popular, Farrakhan. And he says he's following The Honorable Elijah Muhammad. I keep telling him, if you following The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, follow The Honoralbe Elijah Muhammad all the way, not just in 1960s, follow The Honorable Elijah Muhammad in the 1970s. And if you'll follow him all the way up to the end of his life, you'll be okay with me. You'll do the same thing I did.
Speaker 5:
We have time for one more question. I believe this young lady was waiting.
IWDM:
Yes, yes. Thank you.
Speaker 6:
Imam Mohammed, I'm a member of the Catholic Church. And I've read quite a bit about your work for Unity, and I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit about your meeting with John Paul II?
IWDM:
A little bit about... I'm not hearing-
Speaker 6:
Your meeting with John Paul II.
IWDM:
Oh, the Pope.
Speaker 6:
Yeah.
IWDM:
The Pope, yes. Yes. My meeting with him was something I had desired for years. In fact, for about maybe over 10 years. I made a public statement once that I would like to visit the Vatican and have an audience with the Pope. At that time, my interest was the images in Catholicism. I thought that portraying these sacred images was not helping race relations in America. And that if the Pope could hear my complaint, that maybe he would have influence to have the Church pull a lot of those images out of the way for a while. And maybe bring them back up in the year 3000 or something. But pull them away until we get healed. Because what it says is that these images are sacred, these images are divine. And I haven't seen too many looking like Muhammad Ali, some of us, you see. So that was my concern.
But when I again expressed the desire to visit the Vatican, that was not my concern. Because I don't think I was the cause of it, but I find that these physical pictures are not as important anymore for Christianity as they used to be. And I think the world is just making us go to the heart of the matter, to the spiritual identity more than the physical forms. And that's very good. So I didn't go in that interest and I didn't bother the Pope with my complaint that I had before. I went because I wanted to have it in history that the son of Elijah Muhammad, and history records what he believed in, went and visited the Pope and had a good visit and felt that he was embracing a great man, a great leader of faith.
And that's what I did. And that's how I felt. I embraced a great leader of faith who's doing a great service to help to better the conditions of mankind on this earth. And that's the message I wanted to have go out. And I felt that the visit with him would get that message out. And it did.
Speaker 6:
Thank you.
IWDM:
Thank you. And he was also a white man, not only a man of faith, but a white man too. And the son of Elijah Muhammad embraced him. Is that it?
Speaker 5:
One more.
IWDM:
Oh, okay.
Speaker 6:
Oh, well, thank you for having an extra question. This is in a nervous atmosphere. I know that you have to speak in shorthand a lot in an address like this.
IWDM:
I understand. I think.
Speaker 6:
Right. And I don't think you meant to give this emphasis, when somebody worried about how Muslim people and Islamic nations are portrayed as violent on the TV news, which is all violent, all the news is violent, and you thought that the person meant Palestinians... I wouldn't be worried by Palestinians. I think that's understandable. I would worry more about a nation such as the Sudan. Now, we can say, "Oh, you're doing that." And then you could say, "Well, you people did that like in a Christian nation." Germany, they acted like fiends. And you could say, "Well, why didn't the Pope stop that?" But it's just that you have to be careful and not give too much emphasis to Israel causing situations. These things are awfully complicated-
IWDM:
You know our very President of these United States-
Speaker 6:
For all I know colonialism might be responsible in the Sudan, I don't know why nations and people act like-
IWDM:
Yeah, that could be.
Speaker 6:
But you can't say it was the Jews. And this is such a nervous thing and you just want to be careful.
IWDM:
I understand.
Speaker 6:
America had a lot to do with-
IWDM:
I thought I was extremely careful about it, I'll try to be a little bit more careful.
Speaker 6:
America had a lot to do with the government in Guatemala acting like fiends. I mean, we can all pin things on each other.
IWDM:
Sudan and Palestinian situations are quite different. Very different. In Sudan, I think if we had a President like President Roosevelt to help the... The American people were suffering depression and everything, President Roosevelt came into power and he says, "There's going to be chicken in every pot." And I think if we would just tell Africa, "There's going to be chicken in every pot," we'd solve a whole lot of problems over there.
Speaker 6:
It might be colonialism, I don't know what it is. But we shouldn't say it's Israel too much. Careful.
IWDM:
I understand. Thank you. Thank you.
Speaker 5:
Thank you all for coming out tonight. I would like to remind you again that there will be a brief reception in the Mary Lou Williams Center for anyone interested in continuing to discuss tonight's topics. Thank you all for coming.

For more on the ministry of Imam W Deen Muhammad, Muslim American spokesman, call or write: Ministry of Imam W Deen Muhammad, Post Office Box 1061, Calumet City, Illinois, 60409. Or call +1 708-862-5228. For WDM Publications, call 1 708-862-7733, or write Post Office Box 1944, Calumet City, Illinois, 60409. For Muslim Journal, see local distributor. And thanks for listening.

